Obsession (2026) – Review by Andrea Carnevali

Michael Johnston in Obsession

Obsession ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

It’s very, very silly, but it’s silly with craft. Horror that’s aware of its own absurdity, and instead of collapsing into mockery, uses it to sharpen the impact. Gory, tense, surprising, and quite a lot of fun, if you like that sort of thing

When a new horror film opens at my local cinema accompanied by a series of 4 and 5-star reviews everywhere, I usually pay attention. Having said that, I went in completely blind. No idea what it was about, and honestly, I was happy I had skipped the trailer too, because having seen it now, it does give away most of the film.

I’ll refrain from spoilers, but the basic premise is simple (and that’s part of the fun): it’s built around a ‘hopeless romantic’ who wishes for the girl of his dreams to fall madly in love with him… and when the wish is granted, things don’t go the way he expects…

Director Curry Baker is only 26 (I’m so jealous!), and yet this feels like a little horror tale with the confidence of someone far more experienced. Right from the first scene, you can tell you’re watching a filmmaker who understands his audience, how to scare them and mostly he understands ‘timing’. Not ‘big blockbuster timing’, but the kind of timing that matters in horror: setting up a character, making you lean in, then pulling the rug the second you start feeling safe. It takes its time with atmosphere and intention, then starts messing with your expectations.

It’s tense, dark, and genuinely disturbing at points. There’s also plenty of gore and nasty shock value. But crucially, it never takes itself too seriously. It knows it’s ridiculous, and instead of apologising for that, it revels in it.

I was glued to my seat for its entire runtime, hardly breathing at times, laughing out loud at others, and jumping off my seat more than once. It reminded me a lot of those older anthology-style horror TV episodes I grew up with: The Twilight Zone (God, how I love those!) and Creepshow (silly and often cheap, but somehow quite memorable too).

Now, that ‘simplicity’ is also its slight weakness. By the end, you can feel the film starting to repeat itself a bit, like it’s milking the same terror mechanism because it works. It’s not a dealbreaker, but you do feel the film running on momentum rather than constant reinvention.

That’s where performances come in, and this is where Inde Navarette really matters. Her presence holds the film together, her commitment, and the way she makes even the more outlandish moments feel oddly convincing. And alongside that, Michael Johnston plays the sympathetic character with enough vulnerability to keep you emotionally invested, even when the story is doing things that absolutely should not work on paper.

So yes: it’s very, very silly. But it’s silly with craft. It’s horror that’s aware of its own silliness, and instead of collapsing into mockery, it uses the absurdity to sharpen the impact. I came expecting terror, and I got something sharper than that. Something gory, tense, surprising, yes, but also quite fun (if you like that sort of thing).

My teenager-self would have loved it. As a ‘slightly’ older man (I noticed I was the oldest person in the audience), I probably have to admit that it wasn’t the best horror in the world, but certainly the best this year.

Andrea Carnevali is a Bafta winning film maker who lives in Chiswick, and a co-creator of the Chiswick In Film festival.

Read more film reviews on The Chiswick Calendar